Crude Oil Price Holds Gains as Stockpiles Fall 4.2 Million Barrels

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its weekly petroleum status report Wednesday morning. U.S. commercial crude inventories decreased by 4.2 million barrels last week, maintaining a total U.S. commercial crude inventory of 537.1 million barrels. The commercial crude inventory remains at historically high levels for this time of year, according to the EIA.

Tuesday evening the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported that crude inventories fell by 5.1 million barrels in the week ending May 20. API also reported gasoline supplies rose by 3.6 million barrels and distillate stockpiles fell by 3 million barrels. For the same period, analysts had estimated a decrease of around 2.5 million barrels in crude inventories, along with a decline of 1.1 million barrels in gasoline supplies and an 800,000-barrel decline in distillates.

Total gasoline inventories increased by 2 million barrels last week, according to the EIA, and they remain well above the upper limit of the five-year average range. Total motor gasoline supplied (the agency’s measure of consumption) averaged 9.6 million barrels a day for the past four weeks, up by 3.9% compared with the same period a year ago.

[recirclink id=334337]

Continuing declines in U.S. crude oil production, along with disruptions to imports from Canada and Africa, have set traders’ minds firmly on the side of beginning to see the long-awaited rebalancing in the market.

But, as we noted on Tuesday, as the price of benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) rises toward $50 a barrel, some producers will find the higher price once again economic and production may be switched back on. There are probably around 2,000 drilled but uncompleted wells among the big U.S. shale plays, and bringing those wells into production could be relatively quick and cost effective.

Before the EIA report, WTI crude for July delivery traded up about 1.5% at around $49.38 a barrel and dipped slightly to around $49.29 shortly after the report’s release. WTI crude settled at $48.62 on Tuesday. The 52-week range on July futures is $31.61 to $63.77.

Distillate inventories decreased by 1.3 million barrels last week but also remain well above the upper limit of the average range for this time of year. Distillate product supplied averaged 4.1 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, down by 0.9% when compared with the same period last year. Distillate production averaged about 4.7 million barrels a day last week, down about 100,000 barrels a day from the prior week.

For the past week, crude imports averaged over 7.3 million barrels a day, down about 362,000 barrels a day compared with the previous week. Refineries were running at 89.7% of capacity, with daily input averaging 16.3 million barrels, about 92,000 barrels a day less than the previous week’s average.

According to AAA, the current national average pump price per gallon of regular gasoline is $2.304, up from $2.24 a week ago and up nearly 17 cents compared with the month-ago price. Last year at this time, a gallon of regular gasoline cost $2.74 on average in the United States.

Here is a look at how share prices for two blue-chip stocks and two exchange traded funds reacted to this latest report.

Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) traded up about 0.4%, at $90.04 in a 52-week range of $66.55 to $90.40. Over the past 12 months, Exxon stock has traded up about 3.6%, and it is down about 13% since August 2014, as of Tuesday’s close.

Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) traded up about 1.5%, at $101.66 in a 52-week range of $69.58 to $104.44. As of Tuesday’s close, Chevron shares have dropped about 4.5% over the past 12 months and trade down about 25% since August 2014.

The United States Oil ETF (NYSEMKT: USO) traded up about 1.2%, at $11.96 in a 52-week range of $7.67 to $20.80.

The Market Vectors Oil Services ETF (NYSEMKT: OIH) traded up about 3.3% to $28.05, in a 52-week range of $20.46 to $38.00.